Australia is one of the world’s most culturally diverse nation, based largely on high levels of immigration in the second part of the 20th century. From the 1970s onwards, Australia formally recognized the massive social changes brought about by postwar immigration, and provided legislation to incorporate cultural diversity into everyday lives. One such ‘legislative’ enactment saw the establishment of multicultural broadcasting in Australia, as arguably a world-first, both in its comprehensiveness and diversity.

Today, Australia has a public sector corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service, administering five radio services in 68 languages. Also, the Community Radio sector produces multicultural programming in 100 languages through a number of its 330 broadcast and 207 narrowcast stations.

This article examines the relationship between radio and its communities. It argues that despite the ‘profile’ of SBS television, radio is much closer to its constituent communities, and therefore plays a greater role in enabling those communities to speak their own histories, beyond the confines of a consensual Anglophile paradigm.

'3CR community radio provides a media space enabling progressive communities to voice ideas and build their power to create social change' (statement of purpose, 2016).

Refugee Radiofeatures ten refugees and asylum seekers on their journey to a new land. They share the struggle of leaving family and the familiar behind, of learning a new language yet maintaining their culture, and of needing ways to contribute to Australian society.

The state creates the conditions, at multiple levels, that guarantee the freedom and quality of the media, the public’s access to it, and diversity of opinion. In Germany, responsibility for media affairs lies principally with the Länder. The Federal Government, however, has legislative powers in specific areas such as telecommunications and copyright. The “Federal Government Report on Media and Communications” (2008) summarizes the Germany’s federal media policy.

Broadcast media, including radio, serve to protect cultural identity as well as diversity and freedom of opinion. The Interstate Broadcasting Agreement of the Länder requires that both private and public broadcasting companies represent diversity through informational, cultural and educational programming. Public broadcasting companies have a particular responsibility for safeguarding cultural identity and cultural memory. Cultural and educational programming is a mainstay of public broadcasters. Statutory rules governing broadcasting and tele-media must be developed further in light of the new digital possibilities and in accordance with EU guidelines.

The UNESCO Crossings Institute for Conflict-Sensitive Reporting and Intercultural Dialogue has been launched at the University of Oregon in 2013.

Working from curricula developed by UNESCO and the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, Crossings Institute training in conflict sensitive reporting begins with acknowledgement that conflict is a critical element of most news reporting. Learning to report on conflict with a point of view oriented to what may be a solution rather than a simplistic who-wins-and-who-loses perspective can result in informative and constructive journalism of social value.

Their website works like a radio station, offering to the audience a great variety of radio podcasts and intercultural conversations. on Professor and Crossings Senior Research Fellow Chris Chavez recently attended a UNESCO Conference on reporting in Nairobi, Kenya. Research fellow Emerson Malone spoke with Chavez on the role journalists can play when reporting conflict-sensitive subjects such as immigration, tribal and religious conflicts in the area.

'It is widely accepted that radio is a powerful electronic mass media having a magic power to reach even the remotest area with necessary information, education, entertainment and persuasion.

Radio is a very powerful tool of communication having ability to reach the remote areas even where there is no electricity. Radio is also very useful in the South Asian region to those who are deprived of the light of education. As radio messages are delivered with dialogue, music, words and sentences, they can be easily communicable and understandable to the people who can’t read or write. To reach the grassroots level, the Community Radio (CR) can play effective role.'

Read more of Sheikh Mohammad Shafiul Islam's article about Radio's impact in Peace Building Process in South Asiaby clicking to open the resource!

The LISTEN project aims at introducing storytelling approaches and techniques to a radio environment as a binding factor which brings social and personal benefits for refugees.

Those techniques will serve to develop in refugee’s and migrant’s personality a construction of personal values, a higher level of self- esteem, and a stronger sense of identity in the community. They could develop for example verbal and communication skills, foreign language skills, improvement of intercultural understanding and social skills and reasoning. Being equipped with these skills and more, refugees and migrants can be a future “cultural mediator” between their community and the hosting society in order to promote reciprocal knowledge and comprehension between subjects of different cultural backgrounds.

Join the journey suggested by CBC Radio (Canada), that looks at cultural identity and how Indigenous people see themselves in a world that wants to paint them all with one brush. As you might have guessed, identity is a complicated and touchy issue in a lot of Indigenous communities.

Christi Belcourt's own identity often spills out as paint. The award winning artist is Michif and calls Lac Ste. Anne, Alta., home. She tells the story behind a powerful self-portrait that she created after being told she should not be allowed to apply for funding because she was not Indigenous enough.

Amanda Rheaume is a Métis musician based in Ottawa with a very rich family history. And the more she dug into those stories, the more she was inspired to write about her heritage.

Oscar Baker III grew up in two very different communities. His mother is Mi'kmaq from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick. His father is black and his hometown is St. Augustine, Florida. He was surrounded by addiction, violence and poverty. As an angry teenager he drank and looked for trouble on the streets of St. Augustine. Eventually, it would threaten to swallow his life whole. But Oscar saw an opportunity and made a life-changing decision.

Unreserved's own Kim Wheeler shares what it was like to grow up in an adopted family outside of her culture and how she found her way back. She is Mohawk and Anishinabe and was adopted out as part of the ;60s scoop or the Adopt an Indian or Métis Child program. As part of an assimilation policy the federal government took thousands of Indigenous children from their families, often without consent.

Refugee Radio was formed by refugee and human rights workers in 2008. It's a charity that supports refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants.They have a team of staff who run the projects and a group of refugee volunteers who make it all happen. They run community projects targeting mental health, isolation and social exclusion.

And most importantly, they use radio and music to give a voice to this who do not have one.

Irenees.net is a documentary website whose purpose is to promote an exchange of knowledge and know-how at the service of the construction of an Art of peace.

This article provides an overview of some possible ways in which old and new media can make a positive contribution at different stages of the conflict cycle, from early warning to de-escalation, reconciliation and strengthened social cohesion.

It presents some examples of media production that form an alternative to the mainstream media, which tend to support the powerful. Peace journalism, on the contrary, pays more attention to the perceptions of rank and file members of different groups, paves the way to a better mutual understanding, looks for common ground and explores ways in which different communities can peacefully live together in the future. Among others, radio definitely plays a key role in such contexts.